**Spoilers ahead! Stop reading now if you haven’t seen Them and you don’t want to know what happens. **

If you were hoping for a little ray of hope after losing Tyreese last week sorry, you’re out of luck. This episode was one of the darkest episodes in the show’s history. In nearly every other episode the members of the group were driven by a purpose, even if they were temporarily beaten down or without a home. They always were able to rally in order to accomplish a mission. Either to find a safe place to stay, or to find each other, or to rescue each other. But now there’s no clear mission and there’s no hope either. Maggie, Sasha, and Daryl are in very dark places emotionally. Maggie is reeling from losing Hershel and Beth. Sasha is lashing out about losing Bob and Tyreese and she is acting recklessly and putting the group at risk. The group has no food or water and they are barely alive, with no real clear mission to live for. It’s bleak.

Washington
Technically of course there is a mission – they are heading towards D.C. to see if there is any safety there or any answers. But the idea of safety seems like a pipe dream and they are very far away from anything they know. When their vehicle runs out of gas and there are no others around they start walking the last 60 miles to D.C. With no food and no water in the punishing Georgia sun they are fading fast. They are ambling along the road not that much different from the walkers trailing them. When a herd of walkers approaches they fan out in formation along a bridge to push the walkers over the edge, saving themselves the physical exertion of killing them. Until Sasha goes rogue and starts…

** Major spoilers and some heartbreak ahead so if you’re not ready to face it yet stop reading here. Seriously. Save yourself the heartache. **

The Walking Dead is back, finally. After waiting more than two months for the mid-season premiere the Internet was on fire before the episode started as fans lit up social media. The stars of the show participated in a Twitter event before the new episode answering fan questions so fans were really excited when the episode started. Then they got sucker punched.

Goodbye Georgia
In a very abrupt time and place shift the episode opens with the montage that was seen in the two minute preview released by AMC a couple of weeks ago and the group on the road to Richmond to deliver Noah to his home. In one scene Rick is seen discussing why they need to make the trek for Beth because it’s what she would have wanted to see happen. As a memorial to her they will take Noah home. In the next scene they are on the road with Rick, Glenn, Tyreese and Michonne in one car and the others following. The groups are communicating by radio and Carol mentions on the radio that the group has come 500 miles, which puts them just about at Noah’s home.

The Montage
A lot of speculation has been flying about the strange montage that was released a little big ago as a teaser for the new season. It has images of the prison, Woodbury, the train tracks to Terminus, and other familiar images along with some totally unfamiliar images. But of course because this is The Walking Dead all of the images are important and will fit into the story eventually.

Shirewilt Estates
The name is a play on a similar location taken from the comics, Wiltshire Estates. Even though it…

After the death of Beth Greene it seems pretty certain that the group will be heading for the Alexandria Safe-Zone. Once they get there most fans have assumed the villain they will come into contact with is Negan, the man who makes The Governor look like a choirboy. In the comics the group meets Negan once they get to Washington. Negan is the leader of a group called The Saviors, and the Saviors are men who do some pretty evil things. In the comics Negan beat Glenn to death with his weapon of choice, a bat wrapped in razor wire he called Lucille. Showrunner Scott Gimple has confirmed that Negan will appear in the series. However, there are clues that indicate the next major threat the group faces won’t be Negan.

The Official Word
Robert Kirkman has said in interviews that he hasn’t worked out how to adapt Negan for the screen yet because Negan is very fond of saying a certain word that isn’t allowed on TV. So that indicates that Negan won’t be appearing in Season 5 of the show. More likely Negan will be introduced in the second half of Season 6 or maybe even Season 7. If the clues from earlier episodes are right the new threat to the group is going a group called The Whisperers.

Who Are The Whisperers
The Whisperers are a group of survivors who have created almost a type of cult. They learned the trick of covering themselves in blood and guts to go unnoticed among the walkers only they took it a step further and they actually wear the skins of dead people to avoid detection by the walkers. They also wear masks made from the faces of dead people. When they do speak it’s always in a whisper so that they don’t give away their disguises and the walkers…

Even though the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead was devastating for fans due to the death of Beth Greene most of the fans are already counting down the days until The Walking Dead returns in February. The show is in the middle of its 5th season, and usually by this point there isn’t that much buzz about a show but The Walking Dead fandom continues to get bigger and more devoted all the time. AMC is running a Walking Dead marathon for New Year’s that will run every episode of the show but still fans want more. Already there are signs that the last half of Season 5 are going dramatically change the direction of the show and fans may see more beloved characters die. Here are a few of the things that fans can’t wait to see in the last half of Season 5:

Hershel’s Farm
There is a lot of speculation based on the trailers for mid-season premiere that the group will return to Hershel’s farm to bury Beth with her family and say goodbye to the area before heading off on a new mission. For fans of the show a return to the farm would be a bittersweet remembrance of Hershel along with Sophia and Dale. The farm was the setting for most of Season 2 and where the story really changed direction. It would be a fitting ending to this phase of the show for the group to return to the farm to lay Beth to rest and get ready for a new adventure.

The Whisperers
Even though this season of the show is following the storyline in the comic to a certain extent there is a strong possibility that the next villain the group will meet isn’t going to be Negan. Instead the group will come across The Whisperers. The Whisperers are a…

The Walking Dead returns in just a few weeks and fans are already excited for the second half of Season 5 to begin. But fans on Twitter were upset to learn from tweets sent out by Chris Hardwick, the host of Talking Dead, that on Sunday February 8th Talking Dead will not be aired directly after The Walking Dead as it usually is. AMC is showing the premiere of the Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul immediately after The Walking Dead and Talking Dead will air an hour later, at 11 PM EST. Pushing back Talking Dead on the night that The Walking Dead returns to the air is a bold move for AMC. The next day, Monday February 9th, Better Call Saul will air a new episode in the time slot it will have permanently.

Fan ReactionFans of The Walking Dead had a Twitter meltdown after Hardwick tweeted about the change. It’s understandable, considering that Talking Dead is part of the experience of watching The Walking Dead for millions of fans. Talking Dead is the highest rated show on Sunday nights second only to The Walking Dead. Fans enjoy Hardwick’s interviews with cast members and dissection of the show. Fans jokingly call Talking Dead therapy to help them deal with the inevitable shocks and losses that occur in the show. And with the survivors on The Walking Dead still reeling from Beth’s death fans are sure to need some talk therapy after the mid-season premiere.

A One Time Only ChangeSome fans were confused and didn’t understand that Talking Dead isn’t permanently moving to the 11 PM time slot. But Hardwick confirmed that the move is a one off deal just so that AMC can premiere Better Call Saul immediately following The Walking Dead. AMC is gambling on the show and wants to give…

The Walking Dead returns in just a couple of weeks and fans are already looking forward to the last half of Season 5. Showrunner Scott Gimple has promised that the show will be like an entirely new show in the last half of the season. Norman Reedus and Josh McDermitt have both revealed in interviews that the second half of the season is going to be very weird. It also looks like it will be very dark, since the show returns to the group grieving for Beth. According to Scott Gimple and to The Walking Dead Wiki the entire last half of Season 4 until Beth’s death took only about 12 days in the timeframe of the story. So really Maggie lost her father and her sister in less than two weeks which is a lot of loss. With so much coming up in the last half of Season 5 here are five things that fans can’t wait to see when the show returns:

Will Maggie Try to Commit Suicide?

There has been a lot of speculation that Maggie and Glenn have been left untouched for too long in the current storyline. Other than being separated after the attack on the prison they haven’t had too much working against them. Does that make them vulnerable to one of them being killed off? Possibly. In the comic Maggie tries to commit suicide after enduring too much loss, and fans are wondering if losing Hershel and Beth in such a short time will send Maggie into a suicide spiral. Even if she doesn’t succeed in the suicide she may be driven to such a dark action by her grief. Fans can count on at least one more major character dying before the end of Season 5. Will it be Maggie?

Periodically AMC likes to run marathons of The Walking Dead so that fans can catch up on past seasons or spend time watching their favorite episodes. Seeing the episodes in order en masse can sometimes reveal things that fans missed the first time or give fans a new perspective on some of the events that occurred within the universe of the show. Here are five things that fans have learned from watching marathons of the Walking Dead:

Shane Was Really Afraid of Everything
Throughout Season 2 Shane challenged Rick constantly about his decisions and told Rick that he didn’t have the guts to make hard decisions to protect the group. But nearly all of Shane’s actions were reckless and done out of fear. In Season 1 Shane seemed like a pretty capable leader but by Season 2 he devolved into a terrified man reacting to everything like an animal in a trap. He wasn’t capable of making any rational decisions and he would have gotten the group killed pretty quickly. Rick may not have always made the right decisions but at least his decisions were made with some thought and not just as a reaction to something that happened to the group.

Dale Never Would Have Made It Off the Farm
Dale started out as the fatherly presence in the group who kept everyone calm and dispensed advice, but Hershel took on that role after Dale died and filled it in a way that Dale never could. Dale’s constant moralizing sounded more preachy than questioning and he didn’t seem able to adapt to the post-apocalypse world very well. Based on his actions at the farm and his relentless campaigning for the life of the prisoner who did threaten their safety it is pretty safe to assume that Dale would never have been able to adjust his moral compass to allow…

The Walking Dead is the most successful cable TV show in history. It has routinely set new records and then shattered them when it comes to viewer numbers. The current season, Season 5, has beat Sunday Night Football in the ratings several times. Fans cannot get enough of The Walking Dead, so why has it been snubbed by all major award shows every year?

Awards nominations are starting to roll out for this coming awards season and already The Walking Dead has been snubbed by the SAG awards, which nominated the show only for “Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series” and the show and cast were completely ignored by the Golden Globes. Last year the show was totally ignored by venerable awards institutions like the Emmys. Even though Season 4 of The Walking Dead, which is the season that would be considered for nomination, was the strongest season of the entire series there were no nominations for the show. Critics and fans agreed that it was shocking that Melissa McBride, who plays Carol Peletier on the show, wasn’t nominated for her outstanding work in “The Grove”.

The Genre Show CurseEven though The Walking Dead can hardly be considered just a genre show many of the nomination committee members for the major awards shows see it as a genre specific show, and it’s hard for genre shows to find acceptance at major awards shows. However, many of the most prestigious award shows are recognizing Game of Thrones in major acting categories and it can be argued that Game of Thrones is just as much of a genre show as The Walking Dead. It’s very possible that another factor working against the show is that it airs on a basic cable channel and not a channel with the reputation and notoriety that a…

Currently the petition that was started by fans of Beth Green on The Walking Dead to bring the character back after she was killed in the mid-season finale has gotten more than 54,000 signatures and a good bit of press. Fans are adamant that if they keep pushing the petition AMC will have no choice but to bring back Beth Greene but they are only setting themselves up for disappointment. Beth Greene won’t be returning.

It’s a little surprising that Beth, a minor character who never even got much screen time until the second half of Season 4 when she had a few episodes with fan favorite Daryl Dixon, has gotten so much fan support. Longtime fans of the show didn’t start any petitions to bring back major and beloved characters like Hershel, Andrea, or even The Governor. So why have so many fans rallied around Beth Greene?

Anger at the Way Beth Died
One of the major reasons why fans seem so upset about Beth’s death is that they think Beth’s death was without meaning. When other major characters on the show have died they were killed in ways that advanced the story or were the result of actions beyond their control. Hershel was beheaded by The Governor. Andrea committed suicide after being taken prisoner by The Governor, chained to a chair, and having to fight a zombie Milton who was killed by The Governor and left in a room with Andrea to turn and kill her. Merle Dixon was killed by The Governor when he tried to redeem himself by killing The Governor. Dale, one of the original cast, was killed by a walker. But Beth was shot by Dawn as a reaction after she stabbed Dawn in the shoulder with a pair of scissors. Fans see her death as senseless and they are angry that she was…

It’s a sad day for millions of fans of The Walking Dead. Beth Greene, played by Emily Kinney, was the rumored mid-season finale casualty for Season 5. It’s never easy when a main cast member dies because the group is so small now that every loss feels magnified. But the writers have always said that their loyalty is to the ongoing story of the survivors and how they adapt to a post-apocalypse world. In order to tell that story they are willing to sacrifice any and all of the main cast members. Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead, has repeatedly said that no character is safe. Even the most popular characters could fall at any time. And in the bigger storyline it was the right time for Beth Greene’s story arc to come to an end.

Change is the Only ConstantThe world that the survivors inhabit is always changing and as time goes on it’s getting harsher and more deadly. In Season 2 when Hershel, Maggie, and Beth first entered the story there were still large portions of the area that seemed relatively serene. The Greene farm had been pretty much untouched by what had happened. But in just a short time they lost the farm and had to adapt and create their new home at the prison. It didn’t take long for the prison to get ripped away from them and then they were scattered and left to fend for themselves. By this time in the story the only people who are left are either remarkably lucky or remarkably evil. And everyone in the original group has had to adapt in order to survive the changes of the world they live in. From the very beginning Beth had trouble adjusting to the harshness of the reality that they had to live in. Maggie adapted and…